An Awesome venue !! I booked the Brazilian Room for an event in late 2012, hosting ~175 guests. This was an excellent venue for this special occasion, with many highlights and attractions that resulted in an overall experience that accomplished everything I had set out to create when making the choice of venue decision. Some of the outstanding attractions of this venue include: - Beautiful views of the green meadows, lush trees, and rolling hills above Berkeley in Tilden Park, - Floor-to-ceiling windows that create a feeling that the natural beauty of the outdoors is coming right into the room through the large windows, - Ambiance of a "lodge" with it's wood floor, dark wood walls, brick fireplace, and vaulted ceiling with wood rafters, - Both indoor and outdoor areas (weather permitting), - Selection of a wide variety of caterers (although you will be required to choose from their list of approved caterers), - Well-appointed commercial quality kitchen, - Nice lighting (on dimmers), - Gas fireplace (additional fee) with remote on/off control, - Very satisfactory sound system, - An electrically-tuned upright piano, - Nice white folding chairs for guest seating are available, as well as tables, - Approved caterers who know the "ins and outs" of the venue from their numerous previous experiences here, - On-site staff at The Brazilian Room who provide a tour and answer questions regarding the facility were easy to work with. A few other considerations to take into account: - the scenic drive to and from the Brazilian Room is on narrow, hilly roads with numerous sharp curves through Tilden Park (take this into account if your guests will be consuming alcohol), - beer, wine & champagne are permitted, but liquor is not, - the parking lot (no fee) has limited capacity and some guests may have to park along the road and walk a short distance to reach the venue (unless you arrange a shuttle, which we did not), - as you will want to be booking ahead, depending on the time of year, the weather (temperature, fog, rain) won't be predictable up in the hills, so you'll need to prepare for the possibility that guests won't be able to use the outdoor area, - book early to get the date and time of day that you want, - the reservations are made through the East Bay Regional Park District, however the reservation process went smoothly for me, - the LCD projector (for an additional fee) is a bit "touchy" and it is a projector (not on a flat screen), so don't expect Hi-definition picture quality (you may also need to tinker with the contrast, tint and hue controls to get a picture quality you're happy with), - there are restrictions on decorations as you will not be permitted to hang anything on the walls or from the rafters (there are a few existing nails already in the walls that you can use, but you can't change the location of these nails), - allow plenty of time in advance to understand how to operate all controls (lighting, sound system, microphone, gas fireplace, etc.), and also so you'll know where all media connections are located, etc. In the case of our booking, we reserved the venue from 1-8pm, with the event itself scheduled from 3-7pm, to allow the caterers 2 hours to setup, and 1 hour to cleanup. (Watch for my separate review of Miraglia Catering, coming soon). As the event was from 3-7pm, we started during daylight hours, allowed the guests to enjoy the sunset during the occasion, and also allowed for some "after dark" time towards the end of the event. All things considered, this is an outstanding venue, completely worthy of a 5-star rating !!! This venue really set the ambiance for the occasion in exactly the way I was looking to create. I was fully satisfied with the overall experience. read more

i was my friend's +1 to a wedding and the venue is pretty.. the views are gorgeous and the Brazilian room is intimate.. the food for the lunch reception was just ok though.. this place is hard to get to! we opted to drive but for the many out of town guests the bride and groom hired a google bus for transportation to/from the hotel read more

I got married here yesterday. It was absolutely perfect. I couldn't have asked for more.

We held our at the Brazil Room on a Thursday and it was perfect! Booking with the Brazil Room was fairly easy. If you want a Saturday summer wedding... they book up really fast!! We decided for a Thursday wedding for a significantly lower price.. Brazil Room has a few weird policies like no flower petals, bubbles, but with the super low price I didnt really care. For catering we used Serves You Right and I highly recommend! The food and service was great ! The whole wedding ran really smoothly. The catering crew set up and tore down very quickly. DO IT! read more

We were married late April 2010 at the Brazilian Room and loved our experience there. Brazilian Room is a breath of fresh air to get away from city life and be surrounded by gorgeous scenery and trees with the convenience of modern amenities. We looked at numerous venues within San Francisco, Napa and East Bay and found it very easy to choose the Brazilian Room due the combination of beauty and value. The venue is equipped with a commercial kitchen and a spacious room which can accommodate up to 150 (but more comfortably, 120). It is located down a somewhat confusing and winding route, but once found has ample parking for guests. It's quite inexpensive compared to hotels for a couple of reasons -- they can be booked for a half day at a time, tables & chairs are included as part of the rental, and there aren't silly expenses tacked on like cake cutting fees. It's also nice to know that your wedding budget is going to support the East Bay Parks system and another commercial hotel chain. A few points of advice & commentary: If you're planning to book this venue, book early - it fills up fast. We discovered and fell in love with the location in fall 2008 and had to book our wedding for April 2010 because all 2009 dates were taken at that point except for Sunday mornings in November and December. Yes, there are lots of rules. They are pretty straightforward though and ensure the space is kept clean and tidy for everyone using it. Our experience with the staff there was pleasant, and we didn't have any problems and received our full cleaning deposit back. There is a list of caterers which are allowed for the venue, but the selection is huge so I wouldn't worry about being restricted to this list. The tasting fairs were extremely useful to help us, and if anything the problem was trying to narrow it down to a short list. That said, make sure you are very comfortable with your caterer since they are your point person for the entire venue. There is no venue staff on hand during your event. Your caterer has the key, opens up and locks down at the end of the night. We went with Schumann's Four Seasons Caterers and loved them. I believe there is also the option if you are extremely picky about your food to have your restaurant deliver, and your caterer merely provide service. A quirk to be aware of is that there is basically zero cellphone reception at the Brazilian Room and no GPS address for it, but we didn't have any problems by distributing good directions and the number of the payphone (which no one had to use). The upside is there's no risk of phonecalls during the wedding ceremony. If you're planning to have outfit changes at the venue, the men's and women's changing rooms are tiny and also connected to the guest bathrooms. I had to do a few outfit changes for our wedding and the room was crowded for 4 girls standing in it. We also had guests walking in to use the bathroom and saying hello. If you're doing a traditional Western wedding, plan on getting dressed and ready at your hotel to avoid having to use this space. There are a few good photo spots at Brazilian Room, but make sure you visit the Botanical Garden down the street. It is a wonderful place with lots of scenery including a redwood grove to take your bridal & family party photos. read more

I have been to weddings there almost every year since 1978. The view is incredible. The ambiance in the room beats that of any hotel or banquet room I have ever been in - well, the Carnelian has a nice view, but $$$$. Braziliarn Room is one of my favorite spots for weddings and receptions. read more

If you can get the weather to agree, its a great place for a wedding. Our friends just got married there w/ about 120 guests, and it was the perfect size. Staying in one place for the wedding and reception was nice as well. They do shut everything down at 11pm, so make sure you've got your after-party plans locked down. read more

My husband and I got married here earlier this year and I couldn't imagine having our wedding anywhere else. Because it is owned and operated by East Bay Parks, it is very reasonably priced compared to other venues. The room itself is beautiful inside and requires minimal decoration. The grounds are also beautiful and provide a great backdrop for photos. The staff was very helpful, too, and the audio system is fantastic (we didn't use the video, but there is also a projector screen and projector available). The two main downsides to the Brazilian Room are 1) The venue is available in two separate shifts of seven hours (or you can book the whole day) which could be limiting depending on your interests. We picked an evening session in the spring and began our ceremony at 6:30 pm and ended our reception around 10:30. This worked out great for us, however if you wanted to include an extended cocktail hour or something you would probably want to book the room for the whole day. I should note that when we booked the venue in mid-August last year, there was only ONE evening slot available in all of May-June, so book early if you would like your first choice time/date. 2) The route to the Brazilian Room is rather circuitous and is difficult to navigate in the dark if you unfamiliar with the area. Parking is also somewhat limited but it wasn't a problem for us with 110 guests (many arriving in groups of 2 or more). The windy, hilly roads aren't a problem per se, just something to keep in mind for yourself and your guests at the end of your event, particularly if you are serving alcohol. The Brazilian Room does not permit hard alcohol, perhaps in part for this reason. read more

We had our wedding here, and it was beautiful. The reason I am subtracting a star is because of the lack of organization and communication from the folks at EB parks. They would literally call me 3-4 times about every form, requesting me to send it in - even though, in most cases, I had sent it in months ahead of time. On the other hand, each time I tried to get in touch with them, I would generally get voicemail or an auto-reply email saying someone was out of the office for an extended period of time. Fortunately, our caterer was far more helpful, informative, and knowledgeable about the venue than the EB Regional Parks people were. We used Serves You Right catering from the approved list and I would highly recommend them - they know the venue very well and were able to answer our questions and make sure everything ran smoothly. Other positives of the Brazilian Room: beautiful scenery so you don't need a lot of extra decor, tons of easy parking in the lot and along Wildcat Canyon Road, comfortable indoor / outdoor spaces, beautiful fireplace. Drawbacks: it is remote, so it's hard to find and cell reception is poor. However, my GPS on my phone did fine each time I went there, and other people seemed to have better reception than I did (I had zero with T-Mobile). The bridal suite is cute, but small, so it's difficult to pile a ton of people in there. read more

Brazilian Room is aweome. Location, location, location! The backdrop of the rolling Berkeley Hills is spectacular. If you ever attend an event here, take 10 minutes and just sit out front on the lawn and stare away and unwind. It's a nice, smaller venue if you 10 or less tables and still have a dance floor. Depending on the layout, if you have more guests, you'll feel cramped. I think their tables are on the smaller side to fit 10 guests but the perfect size for 8. The only downsides: zero cell phone reception (excellent if you do not want your event to be ruined by a cell phone. Terrible if you're "that guy" who is lost and needs to call someone). It is in the hills, so anyone sensitive to windy roads will need to guzzle some motion sickness pills. read more

This is one of the best wedding/reception venues in the entire Bay Area and comes at a reasonable price, especially if you decide to get married on a weekday as we did. It is a gorgeous building with beautiful landscaping overlooking a rolling meadow and redwood grove. If it happens to rain, there is plenty of room indoors. Most of my friends have been to one or more exceptionally enjoyable weddings at this site. Here are the only (minor) downsides. It is nearly impossible to schedule a time to rehearse on site, since it is booked solid. Keep that in mind if your wedding involves elephants or acrobats. Also, parking is limited and it is easy to get lost on the way to this location, so you will be better off arranging a shuttle or carpools for your guests. We loved this location and our wedding was even more delightful than we had hoped. read more

Hey man, my friends got married here & it is totally a nice spot to have an outdoor wedding with an inside venue for the after-party. I don't have anything insightful to add-- I just showed up!-- but it totally was a Place. read more

This is probably one of the best places a folksy nocal native like me could get married. Gorgeous, reasonably priced, intimate, classic. Unfortunately, it is booked, from now until forever. Seriously, I started trying in March to get a summer date for the next year and they were all gone--that's 15 months ahead of time! Call for reservations on Jan 2, no kidding. read more

Brazil Room is the only venue I showed my then fiance. He was hooked at 1st sight. The hardwood floors and the natural lighting sold it for me. The staff were friendly and don't be afraid to ask questions! Everything went really well until it hit 80 degrees outside! If you do reserve Brazil Room, know that you can open up the bay windows to let a breeze in! All in All, it was the best day ever!! Another plus, we got our deposit back within 4 days of being married. read more

If you are a local and frequent visitor of Tilden, this is the wedding venue for you. We looked in wine country thinking we wanted an outdoor affair, but all those venues felt impersonal and they were expensive! The Brazil Room felt like home and it created the perfect back drop to an intimate, wonderful wedding. Couple of tips -- make sure you have some kind of coordinator if you do your wedding here. Book early! If you can swing it, arrange a shuttle to transport your guests. We used Carrie Dove for catering, and they were great!!! Keep your guest count under 120. More guests would feel very cramped. read more

I remember the first time I visited the site for a school function I knew I had to have my wedding there. It was gorgeous. Years later when that time came for a location, I checked a Bridal magazing and long and behold the Brazilian room was the no. 1 location for ceremony and reception, so that was the first place I took my now husband of 8 years. Because we were not rich, we didn't want too much time planning an extravagant wedding we couldn't afford. Since we had to have a traditional ceremony also we were really tight on cash. Because our budget was 5k for a function of 120 people, we had the wedding on a MONDAY! Saved us 1500 on an already reasonable priced location. And instead of it catered we paid a local restaurant to "potluck" the event. A friend to Dj the event and friends to bartend. It was awesome. Not that tradiotnal Cambodian reception my mother wanted but my guest had a blast. And we didn't get into that weddign debt some people carry for years after they got hitched. And I still have fond memories of the day and the location and everything about it. Just beautiful and lush of green scenery. I would reccomend the location to that couple who loves the nature scene. read more

This was simply an awesome place to have a wedding. The grounds are lovely for picture taking and the inside of the Brazilian Room looked magical. We used orchid Flowers who were amazing and Serves You Right Catering, who are at the Brazilian Room all the time. They are both so professional. The room looked so amazing. It is a little jewel in the middle of a Tilden Park preserve. Magical. read more

The Brazil Room is a very beautiful and special place. My husband and I married there last year­ and I had a wonderful time. We had to reserve time for almost a year in advance. Very friendly staff at the chapel and answered all my questions promptly. I'm very happy that I have a very special experience for my wedding there. The place is beautiful. read more

I attended a wedding for the awesome Claudine C and Danny D here last night and was impressed by this location for a wedding venue. The lawn provides a nice backdrop for the ceremony and the room is the perfect size for about 100 people. Anymore than this and you will feel cramped, but it's nice and cozy for this size. read more

I attended my brother's wedding here last week. It was beautiful! Stunning hillside views!

I've been to many weddings at the Brazilian Room as a DJ for Quantum Music over the years. It's in Berkeley's Tilden Regional Park, surrounded by beautiful scenery and family activities next to the Botanical Gardens. The vibe at The Brazilian Room is very relaxed. The park rangers for East Bay Regional Park are very friendly and helpful. As for events, they always go great. The preferred caterers are awesome and the rental cost is very reasonable for one of the most popular locations in the Bay. If you are looking around, you definitely want to check this place out. It generally books a saturday or sunday 12-18 months in advance but also does fridays and has lesser rates for a weekday event. read more

Beautiful and allows non-catered receptions for weddings! Minus one star for power outage halfway through our reception and minus another star for "hard balling" us for the deposit back. They kept saying it wasnt their fault...We ended our reception an hour and a half earlier than expected and also left the place ten times cleaner than when we arrived...I know that because the assistant even said so...anyway, it is very beautiful! Glass windows everywhere that lets the sunlight come in and light up the room wonderfully. Great space and even has tables and chairs so don't really have to rent them. As mentioned earlier, it is one of the few places that allow non-catered events...that's a huge plus if you're wanting family to cater(my mother in law is the head food director at a resort in northern Cali so she catered our reception)...it is very very beautiful! And affordable. We had our wedding reception on a Thursday afternoon so saved even more money on the rental! There is no signal so be sure to get directions to the place first. Despite the power outage it was a perfect place to have our reception. It's a large room and it will be easy to decorate the way you want it. My family and friends enjoyed themselves. One advice, if you could pay with cash or check, you'll get your return deposit a LOT faster! Wish I knew that before...I have to wait 3-4 weeks to get my return deposit:p We had just had our wedding reception on May24,2012. read more

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This is a gorgeous venue for a small outdoor ceremony/indoor reception. Book years in advance if you have a preferred date, or be willing to have a 10:30 AM wedding and only book a year or so in advance. read more

We had our wedding there on September 2013. Loved the location and combination of outdoor and indoor space. Our wedding pictures came out wonderful! The staff was helpful and all paperwork got done on time. We also were able to book some time to do a rehearsal, which was very helpful. Overall, great location for a great price! We loved it. read more

This is a lovely venue for a wedding ceremony and reception. It reminds me of Nestle Down in Los Gatos. It's not the place for a large wedding, but it does have its charm and sweet ambience which is perfect for bridal photography. The room with high ceiling is well lit with natural lighting from all the many windows. The drive is not the greatest though since it's windy and a little tricky. But the trip is worthwhile and it's one of the nicest venue I have seen. read more

No words can express how thankful we are to have had our wedding at the Brazilian Room last year. I look back to all my pictures now and really appreciate how gorgeous the scenery is. The place is a bit secluded so your guests might have trouble finding it, but it offers the semi-privacy atmosphere you would want for your big day. read more

WE went there for my friend's wedding ceremony and party. So I can't comment about the pricing, but the place itself was heavenly, beautiful and the service, as far as to the guests was really good. WE had allota fun :) read more

I've photographed a lot of weddings here and it's a nice location, but everything I have to say about this venue has been covered by Karen Z. Read her review. read more

My wife and I got married here last week. If you're looking for a great venue, do what we did and look no further. When you visit the location, you of course will immediately see it as one of the seven wonders of the Bay Area. Fantastic even by my skewed standards as a Santa Barbara native. So you're wondering, what's it like to do business with EB Regional Parks? It was actually very smooth. The staff on site helped us find an open date (warning: this place books far in advance for weekends). This being a state-run park, there is of course a flurry of paperwork to sign and fax, but we were gently reminded of these as they became due and it was not overwhelming. This is a brilliant one-stop location for a wedding. Highly recommended. read more

My friend just got married here on 9/19/14 and it was a gorgeous area. Beautiful views. However, the bridal room was incredibly small and cramped and hot as could be! It was a nightmare in there. The bathrooms were only 2 stalls. She was hoping to allow guests to play games on the grass because they needed 2 hours in between the end of the ceremony and the reception for pictures and were told right before the ceremony that games could not be played on the grass, which was dead anyway, but still. Nothing was going to be digging into the large grassy area. Regardless, it's still pretty and the reception area itself was pretty. read more

This is a wonderful wedding venue - gorgeous, breathtaking views and down-to-earth. This place comes with a couple caveats - beware of the many rules that you must follow since this place is located in the middle of a state park. Also, there's no private changing room for the bride so be prepared for that. And it can be confusing to get there so be sure that everyone has good directions to the site. read more

LOVED HAVING OUR WEDDING HERE!!!! It was so affordable, elegant and wonderful. I hope many more people get to be lucky enough to use this space. Also I would recommend Serves You Right Catering for your caterers. They were very reasonable, worked with our budget, and our foodie guests loved it. They took care of the set up and clean up and even took back our beer kegs for a small extra charge. Have a good one!!! read more

My daughter had her wedding ceremony and reception here. Great backdrop for photos! Its kind of hard to find. But the parking is a big plus! read more

I had my wedding at the Brazilian Room in July 2010. The setting is very beautiful. I love the park setting with the trees, the room with brightly lit windows and dark wooden floors and the outside stone patio. The weather was perfect in July. Since I didn't have a specific wedding in mind, I didn't care about all of the restrictions (no candles except in tall holders, loose flower petals, nothing hanging on the walls). We were able to work within the constraints, like getting AV equipment through the DJ, getting ready at the hotel instead of the tiny bathrooms, etc. The windy roads was problematic, and some of my guests did get lost, so if you choose the place, tell your guests to leave enough time to get there. Since the Brazilian Room did not provide catering, we were able to choose among the 12 or 13 approved caters (we went with Melon's). In hindsight, that definitely made the wedding more expensive because we also had to rent linens and utensils and pay for service staff. If we had held the wedding at a hotel or restaurant, we would've saved a lot of money. Nevertheless, the view is amazing and I would choose the Brazilian Room or a similar setting again. read more

The scenery surrounding this place was just beautiful. The building itself was nice. Not the greatest but very decent. It can hold only about 80 -100 guests and if you have more guests than that the place will probably start to look and feel crowded, esp, if you have a lot of decorations or tables that need to be in the room. (if you can place some of decorations or photo booth outside the room that would be better). In our event. we had problem about their projector but that' s pretty much only problem that we had about the building. Another main concern, please make sure that you give a good map to this place to your guest, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Please do not ask your guest to rely on their navigator or iphone map because it can be real tricky, esp, if you bump into CAL's football crowd then many street leading up to this place got closed. As this happened in our event then a lot of our guests had to find their own detour to this place and got lost along the way. read more

Our wedding at the Brazil Room a few weeks ago was honestly magical from start to finish. I can't imagine getting married anywhere else! That said, it's a little tricky to get married there because it isn't purely a "wedding venue" and it doesn't have an on-site event staff (or even an on-site event point person). I think this ends up causing problems for a variety of reasons, but in our case, we just felt like the vendors were at times confused about who was responsible for doing what. Also, because it's a park facility, you really do need to bring in a lot of rentals to dress the space up inside. Outside, the view is incredible and you could honestly do nothing and still have a gorgeous wedding. All things considered, we had a beautiful wedding here, it was (possibly) cheaper than it would have been somewhere else, though it's hard to say given how much we felt like we had to spend on rentals, coordination, etc. to get married there. I would highly recommend this venue and only hope that they are able to streamline the on-site coordination a bit more! read more

What an amazing view! I had no idea this place existed as an option for bay area venues. Great spot for ANY party. Yes, I wish the drive up there was less windy & long too but it is well worth it. The bathroom screamed "Remodel me please!" but that was just a small detail... this place is beautiful! read more

Okay, after almost two years of marriage, I look back on my wedding at the Brazilian room with nothing but happy thoughts, and the little things (how strict they are about the time frame, etc.) have faded away. So now I'm updating it to 5 stars. I sill love to look over our pictures with all that beautiful scenery! read more

The Brazilian Room was a perfect wedding venue. It's beautiful, the people are helpful and friendly, and you get the added bonus of supporting a local park, instead of throwing your money away for a private venue. Plus it's a great value, cheaper than most venues in the Bay Area and far more stunning. We had Serves You Right as our caterer, one of the recommended vendors on their list, and we could not be happier with their service, their food, or their professionalism. Go with the Brazilian Room SYR combination and you will not regret it! read more

Gorgeous location in Tilden Park! The venue is the perfect spot for our wedding as it fits all our criteria. Concrete patio (no heels sinking into grass) and a beautiful view makes it ideal for us to hold an outdoor ceremony. On-site kitchen allows the food to be prepared fresh by the caterer. Tables and chairs are provided, so there is no need to rent them from other places. Rustic building gives our indoor reception a cozy vibe and floor-to-ceiling windows let our guests enjoy the view outside without freezing in the chilly evening air. The venue is beautiful as it is, so there is minimal need for decorations which equate to more savings! Southwest passage leading up to the venue can be windy, so charter a bus to transport guests if possible or advise them to take the 24 highway to Fish Ranch Road for the back road up to the Brazilian Room. Like other reviewers mentioned, this place tends to book up very quickly. We also noticed that for weekend weddings, you have to book the venue for the whole day or commit to either the 7-hours day or evening slots. Because we held a Thursday wedding, we were able to reserve the place for 8 hours which was just enough time for us to hold a short ceremony and a reception. Having a 7-hour slot may be a bit of a time crunch, as setup and cleanup can take at least 2.5 hours, leaving you with 4.5 hours for your actual event. read more